Basket and toilet articles

Unknown

ca. 1479–1458 B.C. · Halfa grass and linen cord; travertine (Egyptian alabaster); linen, linen cord, ebony; boxwood and cypress · Egyptian Art

The objects shown here were discovered with the burial of an unnamed woman who lived at about the same time as Hatnefer. The basket contains a mass of fine braids of dark brown human hair and three bundles of loose, wavy locks. These tresses would have been used to augment the owner's own hair in order to create the fashionable hairstyle of the period. The lid of the small alabaster jar has been covered with a scrap of cloth bound with linen cord to keep the contents—the powdery eye makeup known as kohl—from spilling out. When found inside the basket, the sticklike kohl applicator of polished ebony was stuck through a fold in the linen. The small wooden box was two compartments, each with a sliding lid, and was probably used for jewelry.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1479–1458 B.C.

Medium

Halfa grass and linen cord; travertine (Egyptian alabaster); linen, linen cord, ebony; boxwood and cypress

Department

Egyptian Art

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1936